Handwriting analysis matches [Classified], who was serving aboard [Classified] at the time of [INCIDENT I]. Item was recovered from [redacted], [Classified], near [Classified] inside a watertight container.

Partial text transcription below. Complete transcription of text impossible due to significant water damage to much of text.

In a stroke of accidental or intentional genius, North Korea launched its attack across the 38th parallel minutes before humanity encountered this terrifying foe. Confusion reigned for the first eleven hours of the incursion as the lone abyssal “destroyer” devoured Korean and American troops stationed around the coast. Hampered by mysterious and intermittent radio interference, the US 7th Fleet’s response can only be described as chaotic and ineffectual.

American commanders, not realizing the nature of the opponent they now faced, were soon faced with a painful awakening. A task force hurriedly scrambled with the intention of being a stop-gap measure to slow North Korean advances met its ultimate fate with predictable results. Within hours, the USS Leyte (CV 32) and its escorts would became the first navy ships to fall victim to the abyssal fleet.

The early hypothesis that this new enemy was some kind of Soviet weapon was quickly squashed when the USN soon learned that this was beyond anything they’ve ever dreamed of encountering before. Technology simply failed in its presence. Confused and contradictory eyewitness transmissions, voices often laced with terror and helplessness, suggested that conventional arms were useless against whatever “armor” or “skin” this thing seemed to possess. A few precious frames of delivered recon footage showed that it moved with a predatory agility that should by all means be physically impossible for its colossal size, and as the USN – and the soon to be formed STEC – will learn later, its most potent weapon was one that played its deadly influence on the human mind.

For a few tense hours, chaos reigned. President Truman was adamant in his position that the atomic bomb should not be used, and blocked all efforts to launch a pre-emptive strike against America’s greatest rival. It was fortuitous that he did. Had America unleashed her nuclear arsenal in desperation against the abyssal fleet, the world may have been brought to a premature end regardless of further abyssal incursions.

Yet the world did not end in 1950. No, as the world would soon find out, 1950 was only the beginning.

No doubt everyone’s seen the sudden appearance of a lot of other books and update materials, right? Morgane’ll get to those. Don’t worry. She’s just taking a couple of days off and spending some time with her friends and family. The rest of the team? They’ll be busy.

It doesn’t matter if you’re spending the holidays alone, with friends, or with family. It doesn’t matter what you believe in. It doesn’t matter if your country even celebrates this day. Now, in fact, this really should have been posted yesterday, but you know how it is with the newfangled thing they call internets these day. I can’t get the thing to work, and in all honesty? I think sometimes that’s what things are supposed to be.

For some of us (or a lot of us here), it’s a way of life. It’s an expression of certain sentiments. That’s why I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It’s how we do things back home, and how we always did things.

Yes, Merry Christmas, and may your household be filled with peace and goodwill!